I had a fabulous lunch prepared by chef Josue Cime's wife. It was the equivalent of a Thanksgiving dinner and I walked over an hour and a half without burning a dent in it. First of all, it was all cooked over a wood fire. Delicious Mayan Chicken leg, thigh, and breast... Seasoned roasted potato, white rice, and tortillas, as well as a bowl of bean soup with homeade corn tortillas as a sort of dumpling in the soup, topped with delicious sour cream and a spicey habanero, tomato relish!
Then I taught the kids a little bit of English. They were adorable. Jim has a picture that I will post one of these days. They just adored me and soaked in everything I said.
I taught them "medicine" and sang "Just a spoon-ful of sugar makes the medicine go down...", then translated it. The little boy cousin said "I think I feel a little bit sick." :)
Chef Josue said how he doesn't often get to visit with the volunteers or guests because he's in the kitchen all of the time. He was honored to have us. Of course we were honored to be there!
Jim and I asked Lorenzo if we should take something, and he explained that in the Yucatan, if somebody invites us over, they do it with their heart, and it wouldn't be right to take anything. He is really sweet. Lorenzo is the same person who explained the old age as a form of reverence :)
Last night, loud people checked in to the room next to mine. I wandered drowsily up to the reception area in my pink striped pyjamas to ask about them. (They weren't a group of drunken teens -- just one really loud Mexican couple...) Anyway, I waited for them to doze off on the terrace, and my friends, the trobadores sang a song for me. The sound was really beautiful in the still, damp, night air; and several of the employees came out to stand around and enjoy it. Of course I was in the middle of everything in my crazy pink pyjamas, and then they went in to sing for some guests, and I went peacefully off to sleep.
Tonight was the first time I was questioned by a guard in Chichen (probably because my walk coincided with the beginning of the light show); and I was stopped by two different guards! I began with "Oh, Soy voluntario en la Hacienda..." at which point I was abruptly cut off both times. They both said sorry. One said have a great night, and the other said "andale, then" and smiled. :)
Bibiano came over and sang Happy Birthday to Troy over Skype :)
Tuesday was the primary school graduation celebration, and everyone in Piste seemed to be there. It was great, but unfortunately the batteries on my camera died just when the action started. I have lots of pictures of Magali's friends and family while we waited from 6:30 until the 8 PM start time to make sure we had seats. The wait was fun, too, and I have a bazillion pictures of the kids in the stands. Today, Chef Josue Cime took Jim and me to see a cenote, and to visit his house. I talked to his little girl, and we are going to work on English as time progresses. I'm invited back tomorrow for a homeade chicken dinner - Mayan style :) Chef Josue has a Mayan cooking blog: http://saboresdeyucatan.blogspot.com/Can't remember if I mentioned that Magali said la duena would love to have an online storefront for the Toh boutique (benefitting the La'akeech Foundation which I am volunteering for). So, I am going to be working on that. Today, I just finished organizing the spa services in English and Spanish for the ladies. Now, I'm sitting in the doorway of the bar, out of the rain, ch
Three new teachers arrived today from the United States. Carlos is a Mexican national, but has been living in the USA, and Melissa and Bonnie are both Americans. My boss, Jose Tamay, told me that they would be teaching Magali and the ladies in the spa, and probably having some classes in town. I told him that Magali was my favorite. That did no good; but Magali said that she doesn't want to switch teachers if I don't mind. I sure don't!
Also, Magali mentioned that la duena Belisa would love to have an online storefront. So, I have a grand project for those times that I find myself with nothing to do. I should be able to make wonderful headway on that before I leave.
This morning, I don't know how it came about, but Jim and Fernando were talking about me and Jim told Fernando that I'm 33. Fernando was stunned that I am younger than him (he's 38!). So, I have officially lost my youth... To add insult to injury, we began an informal poll, and Luis thought I was 50!!! Fernando then spent half of the morning explaining that it is a sign of respect to say a woman is older. And that he didn't want me to take it the wrong way, but I have nice things, and a nice job, and so they call me older. It was pretty funny, and I wasn't offended in the first place -- just kind of stunned.
I walked into Piste today and was soaked in the rain. It was delightful. I bought a pair of jeans and two pairs of underwear for $ 190 pesos, which I just calculated as $15. Pretty sweet. They sell bras for $30 pesos, which is $2.35 each. They are not as nice as Victorias Secret or Gap Body; but they are the same quality as JCPenney or Kohls.
New pictures on the homepage of Izamal and an underground cenote.
Today I had a lesson from 5:30-7 and from 7 - 11, went exploring with Jim Conrad. We saw a beautiful orchid that he took a picture of. I'll post it when he gets it on his website. It was too dark in the jungle to take a good pic with my cheap camera. Other than that we saw a ton of ruins which were just too difficult to photograph, but very interesting to explore. No snakes (although there was a boa constrictor within 20 feet of my room the other day, so I was pretty paranoid!). Tons of amazingly beautiful butterflies that I also couldn't photograph.
I hung-out on the hammock from 12-1 and had three visitors -- two to practice English, and one who just introduced himself for the first time.
Grammie Gracie had another stroke. She's in the hospital and talking and apparently moving her appendages. It was too late to call by the time I read my e-mail, but I called Uncle Kim and he said she doesn't seem as bad as last time, so thank goodness for that!
This might have been one of the best days ever...
5:30 - 6:30 English / Spanish with Celso
~7 - 8 more sleeping...
~8 left to meet Bibiano
Walked through Chichen, and passed Jim on his way back from his weekly banana run.
At the entrance to Chichen, Edgar was just dropping off some of his riders (vendors in Chichen). While they were unloading, he told me to hop in, and gave me a ride in to Piste.
8:30 waiting for Bibiano who came to tell me that he was sorry he was late; and that he had to take sa shower.
I busied myself people-watching and taking pictures of the old church an dbig grackels on the belltowers (for The Raven :) ).
A random branch crashed down next to me and after the shock wore off, I inspected it to see if there were any baby birdies. I had almost finished my inspection when a truck full of laborors arrived, parked on teh sidewalk, and stared at me... I told them "Se cayo" (it fell); and one asked "Hay pajaritos" (are there little birds)? to which I could proudly answer in the negative and all the workers breathed a collective sigh of relief before disembarking from the truck to begin working on the masonry around the square.
Two little boys arrived and kept staring at me. This is surprisingly common as most of the village children have never seen a humongous, frizzy, curly, gold-haired white lady with blue eyes. So I thought nothing of it. When the mother and sister returned to them, the little girl stared at me. I continued with my stretching and trying to pass the time. They approached, and the mother asked if I was _________( wish I could remember...), to which I looked at her quizzickly... She said "an actress"... And, of course I laughed. They all left, gloomily. Bibiano said I should have told them sure and taken pictures and handed out autographs and looked it all up later :) Of course I didn't.
On cue, Bibiano appeared, and we began our adventure.
Obviously there are tons of photos to upload, but I am fairly preoccupied in trying to find pizza around here... It's Saturday night for goodness sakes -- someone should be making pizza :O
This is such an interesting cultural expedition. I don't really know how to describe it, but I will try. Today, every group of people ended up being busy during the assigned class time. I mean it, they were just swamped, I could see it with my own eyes -- they weren't making excuses. Well, I hung-around forever, thinking that they would want to learn a-little bit of English while they weren't busy. And they didn't. But they did ask about class tomorrow. I just don't understand.
Oh, and I was going with the chef to swim and meet his niece who is very interested in learning English, and a phenomenal thunderstorm broke -- thus postponing those plans.
So I went to sulk on my hammock.
Then, one of the men from the laundry room walked by, looking at me. I said "hello". He walked back the other way. You might have noticed my new Mayan dress -- well, I ran out of clothes and have been waiting for over 48 hours. I had given-up and was planning to buy more new underwear and another dress tomorrow... Anyway, the man doubled back again. Then he walked over and asked if I spoke Spanish. I said yes. He said that he would like to learn English. So we talked for awhile, and then he asked if I was Room #12? and told me that my clothes were all ready. Was he waiting for me to be randomly hanging out on the hammock? Seems ridiculous, but in 8 days, I have had 4 impromptu lessons there...
Yesterday I bought bras and underwear in Piste -- less than $5 a set! Everything here is just so different...
I'm listening to Broadway hits on i-tunes. Turns out that Luis doesn't mind Barbara Streisand, so as he's working the bar tonight, I think we'll download more of her and hang-out.
Celso is learning very well. He has four notebook pages of English words and can pronounce all of them very well. He also knows that they mean :)
Also, Magali is an absolutely phenomenal student. This morning I went into the store to photograph some of the items for our lesson and she was reading the .pdf of the dictionary that I gave her yesterday :)
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